I operate this website using apache2. It is hosted on a virtual machine which I rent from a company that likes to keep a lot of computers on all the time. The certificate is from Let's Encrypt. I always thought you had to pay for web certificates, but Let's Encrypt will give you one for free. Yay! I also somewhat regretfully log a tiny bit of user information (IP, visit time, entry/exit links that are also subdomains of this website) using StatCounter.
I was initially uncomfortable with the idea of collecting any user data that isn't explicitly offered by the user, even if it's just your IP address and when you visited the page. But ultimately I decided that if you ask me to pay someone to send you information, even if it only costs me a fraction of a cent in computer time, it's fair enough for me to at least know that transaction took place. Of course, I'd much prefer to do it without involving a third party, but that would take a chunk of free time that I haven't found.
The website uses only html/css that I wrote (except the StatCounter snippets). That's why it doesn't really do much or work all that well. But I like the effect: doesn't it feel like I scribbled these thoughts out on a piece of paper and then handed them to you? And even though I just used a bunch of super sophisticated free tools which dedicated people spent ages developing and that did nearly all the work of hosting the website for me with just a tiny bit of setup, well, I did still have to learn some stuff, and that part was mostly fun and interesting.
Anyhow, the virtual web hosting service, apache2, and Let's Encrypt were all suggested by my dear friend Christa Hawthorne. Thanks Kit! Meanwhile, the idea to write a bit about it was inspired by Professor Kuipers's essay here.
This page was last modified on 2023 March 11 by Samuel Baltz